1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods and systems for processing and responding to emergency medical inquiries. Specifically, this invention relates to the process of providing emergency medical counsel, instruction or advice to callers who are inquiring concerning childbirth cases. Providing adequate emergency medical care presents several critical challenges to medical care providers. These challenges include: the proximity to the care provider, the time required for help to arrive, the identification of the criticality of the emergency, the appropriate level of care provided, the variances in training of emergency medical dispatcher personnel, and limited nature of emergency care resources. This invention addresses these challenges by providing consistent and proven advice and instruction for persons on the scene with patients involved with childbirth. This invention, in its best mode of operation, operates as part of a system for the management, processing and response of an emergency medical dispatch system. This emergency medical dispatch system accomplishes the above objectives by: First, gathering necessary medical complaint information from emergency medical inquiry callers and providing emergency verbal instructions to individuals at the scene. Second, prioritizing the complaint to determine the criticality of the emergency. Third, assisting dispatched responders to be prepared for each emergency situation. Fourth, advising those on the way to provide care at the scene of specific problems or potential hazards. When used correctly this invention decreases the effective response time, while increasing the professionalism and control of emergency medical dispatchers, increases the accuracy and appropriateness of patient interrogation and well as the quality of gathered information, reduces the number of multiple unit responses thereby reducing the risk of emergency medical vehicular collisions, improves patient care, reduces burn-out and stress of dispatchers by improving their quality of training, decreases the risk of responder injury or mistake by providing responders with improved knowledge of the situation, provides an means for continuously improving the quality of emergency patient care, and provides a "zero-time" emergency medical response through guidance given remotely, typically over a telephone, to individual at the scene.
While being included within a greater invention that addresses all of the above issues, this invention specifically addresses the method or process of giving emergency medical counsel to childbirth patients and/or those individuals at the scene with the patient. Childbirth is a common yet not routine event. Accurate, reliable and proven instructions can be especially important when childbirth begins or occurs outside a hospital. The process of this invention can be essential to the successful delivery of a new baby, particularly when the travel time for an emergency medical team to the patient is often to long for the team to be able to give the most effective assistance. This invention provides a means for communicating, in an orderly manner, to individuals at the scene the information necessary to help them help with the deliver. Accurate, efficient and systematic responses to calls for help with childbirth can and does make the difference in the successful delivery of many new borns outside the hospital environment.
2. Description of Related Art
It is desirable to provide a systematic and standardized method for responding to emergency medical requests, especially where a woman is about to give birth and where individuals at the scene can be properly instructed help her. Although in the related art some attempt has been made to address the problem of medical care assessment, the related art does not address the specific problems of emergency dispatcher response to medical problems related to childbirth. Rather related art approaches describe the following. A process of helping patients assess their health, select appropriate health care, and guide such patients to an appropriate level and type of care. An automated medical history taking system and a technique wherein selected branch paths through a question repertory are provided. A method and apparatus for coordinating the actions of two or more medical teams, especially for instructional purposes. An expert system for providing suggested treatments for a patient with physical trauma. A medical payment system that incorporates computer technology in the storage, retrieval and processing of patient data and insurance claims. A knowledge base containing medical/pathological information on various diseases. A hospital computerized system for entering information pertinent to a patient's stay in the hospital. An expert computer system for processing medical claims. An interactive computerized apparatus and method for presenting medical information for diagnosis and study of disease. An automated and interactive positive motivation system to send a series of motivational messages and/or questions to a client to change or reinforce a specific behavioral problem. An artificial intelligent expert system. A rapid response health care communications system for providing rapid and reliable health services to patients located within or outside a health care facility.
For general background material, the reader is directed to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,130,881, 4,237,344, 4,489,387, 4,839,822, 4,858,121, 4,945,476, 5,063,522, 5,065,315, 5,072,383, 5,253,164, 5,255,187, 5,471,382, and 5,596,994. Each of the above references is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for the material disclosed therein. MICROFICHE APPENDIX. This specification includes a Microfiche Appendix which includes 1 page of microfiche with a total of 20 frames. The microfiche appendix includes computer source code and database structure of one preferred embodiment of the invention. In other embodiments of the invention, the inventive concept may be implemented in other computer code, in computer hardware, in other circuitry, in a combination of these, or otherwise. The Microfiche Appendix is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and is considered to be a part of the disclosure of this specification.